Qiang Qin

Updated: 2010-09-07

For a period of time after that, Ouyangke searched for ore on the mountains outside Nashang County, and Fusu also sent people to follow him for his dispatch.After half a month of searching, Ouyangke really found a mountain with a huge amount of iron ore and copper mines ten miles west of Shangjun City. This made Fusu very happy, and hurriedly sent an army to the mountain. According to Ouyangke's order, a copper and iron smelting place was built on the spot, and Ouyangke lived here, and began to smelt the ore into real metal.At the same time, Fusu was afraid that Ouyangke would not be able to do it alone, so he sent the more clever soldiers of the general to the mountain to smelt with him, and two months passed by now.

In the past two months, Yunzhong County has wiped out several waves of Huns who fell into the trap.At the beginning, those Huns didn't know where they were going, and people kept going to the valley to grab grain, and they were all planned and killed by Meng Tian and others. The strongest Le Gang tribe was also killed by these Central Plains people, so they didn't dare to attack the valley lightly.At the same time, Meng Tian and others also began to consider Fusu's order. Although the Huns suffered heavy casualties in these few battles, in fact Meng Tian's army also lost a lot of troops, especially for the first time together with Le Gang's cavalry. After several battles, counting the men and horses, everyone found that more than [-] people had been lost. These were all the elites of Fusu's army, which would be very detrimental to Fusu's future struggle for hegemony in the Central Plains.

At the same time, those Huns didn't dare to gamble their lives on that bit of food anymore, while the other counties moved the people outside the city closer to the city, guarded by a strong city, and the Huns were not good at cavalry. After attacking the fortress, they no longer appeared near Fusu's territory, but ran to other places.

Now that these Huns have been expelled from their own territory, Meng Tian and others began to bring the troops back to the upper counties one after another, leaving only a 5000 cavalry led by Zhou Xing to guard several border counties, in case the Huns People go and come back.

The hard work of two months was not in vain. Ouyangke had smelted over a thousand catties of iron and three thousand catties of copper. This was because the soldiers who came to help were not familiar with the smelting method, otherwise the quantity would have been even greater.On this day, Fusu personally came to the smelting field to see their progress.It was already winter, and Shangjun was in the north, so the weather was very cold.But when Fusu and the others came to the edge of the hill, they felt the heat wave rushing towards them. Not only could they not feel the cold of winter, but they also wanted to take off all the winter clothes they were wearing.

Seeing that Fusu had brought people here in person, the soldiers guarding the foot of the mountain stepped forward to salute, and at the same time hurriedly sent people up to report to Ouyangke and others.When Fusu came halfway, Ouyangke had already brought people down to greet him.I saw that he was only wearing a hemp robe all over his body, and his exposed skin was red and black from the fire for a second, but his eyes were bright and energetic, and he was more energetic than when he first met Fusu that day.When he came to Fusu, he bowed his hands and was about to bow down. Fusu hurriedly supported him and said, "Mr. Ou, you don't need to be polite. I just came here today to see how much the copper and iron are. Is there anything I need Fusu to do." While talking, he took Ouyangke's hand and went up.Followed by Zhang Liang and Cang Haijun, two old friends of Ou Yangke.

Ou Yangke hurriedly said: "Now these soldiers have mastered how to extract copper and iron from that ore. Compared with the previous days, the output of this copper and iron has doubled. As for the needs that the prince said, I think Please prince send some more warriors, because we are running out of ore near the smelting field, and we have to transport the ore down from the mountain, so we don't have enough manpower here." He said with a smile.

"It's easy. Now we don't use soldiers abroad, and the soldiers are idle. Let them come to the mountain to help the master mine. It's right for training." Fusu agreed with a smile, and then asked, "I don't know. Zhang Liang's soldiers already have a few skills like Mr. Zhang Liang's skills in mining and smelting?"

"They have already mastered all the processes from mining to refining, and now I just give some pointers on the sidelines."

"Won't the production of copper and iron decrease if Mr. Leaving this mountain?" Fu Su hurriedly asked after hearing his answer.

"This..." Ouyangke hesitated for a moment and said, "It shouldn't be a problem. Several of them are already proficient in mining and smelting skills. With them here, there should be no problem. I don't know the prince. What do you want me to do?"

Fu Su laughed and said: "Mr. Ou, we smelt so many copper and iron not just for the good-looking, we also need to cast them into usable weapons and armor, and sir, you are the master of sword casting, Ou Yezi. For future generations, it should be easy to forge weapons and armor, so I would like to ask Mr. to open another place and open a foundry to make some weapons for me."

When Ouyangke heard this, his already flushed face became even more rosy with excitement: "Since the prince trusts me so much, I, Ouyangke, will live up to my trust. I think my Ou family has made a living by casting weapons for a hundred years. In my generation, it will be useful, and today the prince allows me to continue the work of my ancestors, and I, Ou Yangke, am extremely grateful."

Fusu patted Ou Yangke on the shoulder and said: "Mr. Ou, just show off your superb skills, and let me see how the magic weapon came out. But now I don't want Mr. Ou to specialize in casting a piece of art. Weapons, but a large number of usable weapons and armors, once you can teach some disciples, then Mr. Ou can inherit the wishes of his ancestors to forge magic weapons."

"Okay, then the prince will first find a place with running water and carbon fire, so that I can press it down and cast it." Ouyangke said impatiently.

"It's not busy. Apart from talking about it with my husband today, I mainly want to see the smelting field." Fusu said, and had already walked into the smelting field.The site has a radius of tens of feet, and there are furnaces built of earth and rocks inside, and there are large pots on it, and the ore is being smelted inside.Compared with the temperature here, it was too cool outside, and Fusu was already sweating profusely just by standing there for a while.At this time, some soldiers were using some special vessels to put the smelted copper and iron clouds into the corner. Fusu hurried over and saw the bright yellow copper and black lacquered iron being placed there.Looking at these things, Zhang Liang felt a little strange, so he asked, "I see that the colors of those cast weapons and armors are not like this. Could it be that the craftsmen who cast them added something to them?"

Ou Yangke was also puzzled and said: "I don't know about this. I asked my father back then, but he couldn't tell why. Maybe the heat is higher when casting weapons than when smelting them, so Color them."

"In fact, they have been in the air for a long time, and the oxygen in the air has oxidized to change the color." Fusu saw that neither a learned talent nor a blacksmith knew the reason, so he explained road.But as soon as he explained, the two of them didn't understand even more, and they both looked at Fusu curiously.It was only then that Fusu realized that no one understood the chemistry knowledge he had learned before, so he hurriedly said with a smile: "I'm just talking casually, you don't need to take it to heart."

After seeing the smelting field, Fusu returned to Shangjun with Ouyangke and thousands of catties of copper and iron.After that, he built a foundry in a small valley outside Shangjun City, and sent some soldiers to learn the art of casting from Ou Yangke.

With Ouyangke's hard work day and night, nearly a hundred weapons and armors were finally cast.After the soldiers used it, they found that the strength of the armor and the sharpness of the weapons were far higher than the previous armaments. This made Fusu very satisfied. Foundry was the right decision.

In the school grounds, a soldier was standing in place wearing an armor made of Oyster, while a crossbowman in the distance aimed at his chest with a crossbow. the soldier in armor.Hearing a "ding", the soldier in armor only took a few steps back, and the crossbow arrow fell to the ground, and the armor on his body was completely fine.

"Okay!" Fusu hurried forward, "Take off your armor and go rest."

The soldier took off his armor frightenedly. He was known for his boldness when he saw the crossbow arrows shooting just now, so his legs went weak from fright.Fusu saw his fear, and hurriedly added: "You will be frightened when you go to receive another half month's military salary."

After the soldier left, Meng Tian, ​​Han Xin and other generals hurried up, took the armor from Fusu, and exclaimed in amazement: "I never thought that Ouyangke's casting standard is so high. It can block the shooting of hard crossbows. It's just that this armor is too heavy and not suitable for infantry, otherwise our soldiers will not die in battle."

Fusu interjected, "Not only is this armor too heavy, but it also takes several times as much time and copper and iron to make one piece as other armors, so I don't plan to let all the soldiers wear it."

"What is the purpose of the prince asking Mr. Ou to build this armor?" Meng Tian asked strangely.

"I let the cavalry wear it. I want to build an enemy cavalry team!" Fusu said confidently.

"Even infantry wear it. It looks very bulky. If cavalry wear it, the characteristics of maneuverability, flexibility and speed of cavalry will no longer exist. What is the purpose of the prince?" Han Xin also asked strangely.

"You will soon know that my chain horse will definitely be the most feared unit when fighting the enemy on the plain." Fusu said as he shook off the armor and looked carefully, as if He had seen an enemy cavalry.

ps: Two episodes will continue to be aired today. After several hours of commercials, the second episode will be staged. Please don’t forget to watch it then :)